[Zope] Giving up in frustration

[Bradford Hull]

This is unusual, I realize, but I'm going to tell you why I'm giving up on 
Zope now.  I'm doing it because I think this thing has awesome potential, 
but if you try to make it popular with the current documentation it will 
sink like a rock any time a user wants to see how to input or edit data.

I'm experienced, quick-witted, hard-working, dogged and persistent.  I read 
all the available documentation until my eyes bled.  I read thousands of 
the letters in the email forum.  I could not have made a more valid effort. 
 I finally gave in and sent the email group a plea for help, and got 
several kind and generous answers that answered my questions, basic, 
obvious questions, the kind nobody can get anywhere without having answers 
to.

Why could I not find those answers in all that documentation digging?

The answers basically led me into another blank wall one millimeter closer 
to my simple evaluation than I was when I started.

I have learned hundreds of systems in my career, many of them quite opaque 
and difficult.  Last week, I learned python so I could rewrite a perl 
script that was choking on signals from child processes, and in a day I had 
a solid, actually rather beautiful, threaded python application running 
brilliantly for me (and a great appreciation for the language).  OK, 
learning python is not rocket science, but this is seriously non-trivial.

I have never in my life experienced a system so utterly resistant to 
learning the basic elements you must know in order to start, as I have with 
Zope.  I got on the Linux bandwagon when there were maybe 50,000 of us, at 
release 0.99 patch level 5.  It was obnoxious to find the info you wanted, 
but not like this.

People!  Write some getting-started documentation!  Write an FAQ file!

And for God's sake, don't write a patronizing letter about "Does Tera have 
money to spend?" to a person who's trying to evaluate whether something is 
worth spending money on...

I hope you're hugely successful with Zope over time, but you'll lose a lot 
more like me if you don't write down the basic assumptions some place and 
post arrows pointing to it from everywhere.  And I tell you what: If I ever 
have a database where I never have to put in any data, or edit any of it, 
I'll be back in a flash...

(giving-up-wistfully-and-will-check-back-regularly)-ly yours,

-- 
Bradford K. Hull  | ... Are we having fun yet? ...  Zippy the Pinhead
brad@tera.com     | 
(206)701-2066     |